With the inauguration of the Fulgor Palace, at the end of 2021, hosted in the eighteenth-century building where, on the ground floor, the legendary Fulgor cinema is located, the innovative project of a multi-location museum centre dedicated to the genius of Federico Fellini was finally completed. The Fellini Museum is, actually, hosted out in three historical locations in Rimini: Castel Sismondo, Palazzo del Fulgor and Piazza Malatesta. A place of creativity - included by the Ministry of Culture among the great national projects of cultural heritage - under the flag of Fellini's vision encompassing cinema and the arts, in permanent dialogue between innovation and tradition.
After the grand opening of the halls in Castel Sismondo, on August 2021, and the final set-up in Piazza Malatesta now featuring the "bosco dei nomi" (“the forest of names”),the Fulgor Palace has open to the public on December 2021. The grand opening was accompanied by a videomapping show in Piazza Malatesta and by free guided tours.
It was specifically in Rimini and at the Fulgor cinema that Fellini's career began. It was here that a young Federico fell in love with the big screen: American movies, westerns, “Ridolini”, Laurel and Hardy comedies, Buster Keaton, Charlot and the Marx Brothers. Now, Palazzo del Fulgor is the starting place where to step into Fellini's life and cinematography, retracing his biographical and creative career and delving into his projects and his business, love and friendship bonds thanks to the digital archives and interactive tools available or exploring precious original materials, drawings, posters, vintage books and magazines, films and audiovisual documents.
Palazzo del Fulgor, with its smaller and cosier spaces than those featured at Castel Sismondo, is dedicated to information, study and research and open to a heterogeneous audience of citizens, students, tourists, curious individuals, fans and researchers.
Welcoming visitors to Piazza San Martino, at the Fulgor Palace entrance is a large sculpture in jesmonite depicting the rhino protagonist of some of the most powerful and evocative scenes in Fellini's imaginative movie “E la nave va” (And the Ship Sails On), now the symbol of the entire museum centre. A lighter version of the rhino has taken the role of ambassador for the Fellini Museum by participating in a Grand Tour of Italy: at the beginning of September 2022, "Rina" - as the rhino has been nicknamed by the media following her on all her travels - was in Venice for the Film Festival, where she took part in the Regata Storica parade on the Grand Canal and then landed on the red carpet of the Venice Lido. Afterwards, the rhino participated in the sixteenth edition of the Rome Film Festival, where she stood in the Hanging Gardens of the Parco della Musica Auditorium, in the green area between the Petrassi and Sinopoli halls. Now Rina is back in Rimini, in the splendid setting of the Grand Hotel garden.
THE FELLINI MUSEUM CENTRE
Included by the Ministry of Culture among the great national cultural heritage projects, the Fellini Museum is a magical place of art: a venue that stirs emotions and entertainment where innovation, research and experimentation are measured against the classic spirit of art.
The Fellini Museum wants to interpret the cinema of the Rimini-based director not as a work in itself, as a shrine or tribute to the memory, but by exalting the cultural heritage of one of the most illustrious directors in the history of cinema, who was born in Rimini in 1920, and brings together through a conceptual and spatial bond, several locations in the heart of the city, creating a composite path of interactive narratives that make the visitor the protagonist of an immersive experience. A seamless dialogue is created between indoor and outdoor spaces where creativity and imagination positively contaminate Rimini and its journey into the present and future, as the key to accessing the world of "imagination is everything".
The Fellini Museum is spread out across three famous locations in the historical centre of Rimini, connecting them in a single continuum to convey knowledge and the creative spark that made the Italian director so extraordinary. The three areas are: Castel Sismondo, the fifteenth-century Malatesta fortress designed by Filippo Brunelleschi; the Fulgor Palace, an eighteenth-century building where the ground floor hosts the legendary cinema Fulgor immortalised in Amarcord and now renovated with a stage designed by three-time Oscar winner Dante Ferretti. Lastly, the two buildings are joined by Piazza Malatesta, a large urban area with gardens, event arenas, artistic installations, an immense pool of water reminding of the ancient moat of the castle and a large circular bench that, as at the end of the 8½ movie is meant as hymn to life, solidarity and the wish to be together.
Piazza Malatesta, just like a big square of dreams, embraces in a ring that is not just symbolic, the cultural hub that has at its centre the Fellini Museum, but that also includes the Galli Theatre inaugurated by Giuseppe Verdi and restored in 2018, and PART - Palazzi dell'Arte Rimini, a contemporary art centre hosted in two fourteenth-century palaces, inaugurated in September 2020, to which the Sculpture Garden embellishing the exterior of the Museum was added in 2021.
The project is part of a broader action of infrastructural renovations and enhancement of the cultural and architectural heritage of the city and its historical centre, which completes an overall strategy of beautification of the city committed to redesigning its image and future.
The Municipality of Rimini has entrusted Studio Azzurro with the artistic direction and design of the immersive multimedia project where visitors can actively participate, and the architect Orazio Carpenzano and Studio Tommaso Pallaria with the architectural project and the entire layout of Castel Sismondo and Fulgor Palace. Both are part of the group of companies, represented by Lumière & Co., winners of the international tender. The Fellini Museum is curated by Marco Bertozzi and Anna Villari.
The Fellini Museum has been possible thanks to the participation of almost all the producers of Fellini's movies and the current holders of the enjoyment rights: RTI - Gruppo Mediaset; Titanus; Pea Films Inc; Cristaldi Film; Rai Cinema; Istituto Luce / Cinecittà; Gaumont; Lyric Productions; and Compagnia Leone Cinematografica. Many thanks also to the main national audiovisual archives: Teche Rai; Istituto Luce historical archives; Fondation Fellini pour le Cinèma in Sion; Tonino Guerra association; Barilla historical archives; National Archive of Corporate Cinema as well as the photographic archives of the Fondazione Centro sperimentale di Cinematografia; Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna; Cinemazero di Pordenone; Reporters Associati & Archivi; Associazione culturale Mimmo Cattarinich and the Maraldi archives.
The visual identity and graphic design of the Fellini Museum have been created by Studio FM in Milan.
Visit Romagna and APT Servizi Emilia-Romagna, with Hera Servizi as the Gold sponsor, are partners in this project, which has also been awarded the sponsorship of RAI.
For more information: FM Fellini Museum
www.fellinimuseum.it | +39 0541 704494 | museofellini@comune.rimini.it
Facebook: @FelliniMusem Instagram: @fellinimuseum
Opening hours:
Castel Sismondo & Palazzo del Fulgor
Tuesday to Sunday 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Closed on Mondays
In July and August they are also open open on Wednesday and Friday evening from 9pm to 11pm
Admission: full price 10 €, discounted price 8 €
Entrance only to Palazzo del Fulgor: 2 €
20 January 2024: on the occasion of Fellini's birthday, entry to the museum will be free of charge